This vow shall be kept by me,
By this altar stone I swear.
The next morning neither Helena nor Caliphronas was present at breakfast, as the girl, in company with Zoe, had gone up the mountain shortly after sunrise in quest of flowers, and the Greek had not been near the Acropolis since he had left it the previous night.
“Can he have left the island?” said Maurice anxiously to the Demarch.
“Hardly,” replied the old man grimly; “unless he has borrowed the wings of Icarus, for I alone have the key of the tunnel.”
“There is the western pass,” suggested Crispin thoughtfully.
“True; but even supposing he did get to the sea-beach, he will find it difficult to obtain a boat,” said Justinian calmly. “All the boats are fast chained and padlocked to the rocks; so, unless his friend Alcibiades finds him waiting, like a second Ulysses, on the beach, I hardly see how he can take French leave.”
“What are you going to do about him, Justinian?” asked Maurice curiously.
“I am waiting until you and Helena come to an understanding, and then I will tell Caliphronas that he has been beaten with his own weapons of treachery.”
“Helena has gone up the mountain. Will I await her return?”